It was 1999. Granite Investment Group Chief Executive Allen Boerner was one of about 30 guests, most of them donors, at a special graduation event. He attended somewhat reluctantly, his wife, Susan, having gently nudged him. It was the first Guardian Scholars graduation celebration, she said, and she really wanted to go.
Guardian Scholars is a program providing support to current and former foster children. It inspired other schools to adopt similar efforts.
Boerner listened as three graduates, all former foster children, shared stories of the struggles they faced growing up. But what impressed him the most is how grateful they were to audience members whose financial support made their college educations possible, that if weren’t for them, they likely never would have gotten the education.
“I was deeply touched,” Boerner says. “I wanted to get involved.”
Afterward, he introduced himself to Ron Davis, the man who started the program, asking, “What can I do? How can I do it?” Davis replied, “It’s very simple. Just write a check.”
Boerner wrote a generous one. But he said he’s never been one to simply make a donation and be done with it, that when a cause touches his heart, he gets involved.
Starting in the mid-1970s, he distributed turkeys to the poor, at first independently and later through the Lestonnac Free Clinic, which he’s supported for nearly 30 years. He’s served on the boards of Furnishing Hope and Segerstrom Center for the Arts and been devoted to multiple other philanthropic causes over the years.
It was the same with the Guardian Scholars program. He attended another of its events soon after the graduation.
Davis told the audience that night that “the ones who really benefit are those who get involved one-on-one with the students. Help them, mentor them, [and] take them out to lunch.”
Boerner remembers, “He looked directly at me.”
Committed
In the late 1990s, a former foster youth who was served by Orangewood Children’s Foundation was accepted to California State University-Fullerton. Being accepted to a university was an accomplishment in itself, but she struggled to navigate college life.
Davis, who’d had a successful career with Perrier Group of America Inc., serving as president and later board chairman, graduated from CSUF and was still involved with the school. He was also actively involved with Orangewood. In 1998, after learning of the young student’s plight, he founded Guardian Scholars so other former foster youth would have the support needed to succeed in college.
The program started with three students, providing full financial scholarships. In the 2017-18 academic year, 47 students got full rides.
The annual cost to attend CSUF is approximately $25,000, including housing and books, said Deanna Merino-Contino, director of its Center for Scholars. Former foster students receive state and federal aid totaling about $13,000 each, and Guardian Scholars funds the rest.
“When we bring in a student, we are committing for up to five years, so that could be $60,000 over the course of their time here,” said CSUF Director of Development for Student Affairs and University Programs Cris Powell. One of the unique parts of the program is that all scholarship support is privately funded, Powell said. He credits Boerner with introducing the program to many community members and business leaders who’ve become donors.
“I was elbow-to-elbow with [Davis] from the year 2000 on,” Boerner said.
When Davis and his wife, Lucy, moved to Vail, Colo., in the early 2000s, Boerner took the program’s reins, driving fundraising efforts by introducing friends and business associates to the program.
“I never ask them for money,” he said. “They’ll come to an event and hear two or three students talk. Then they’ll shake their hands and talk on a one-on-one basis. They’re touched, just like I was. And they say the same thing I did, way back then: ‘I’d like to get involved, what can I do?’”
He said 90% of the people he invites to events become donors.
Most of the many notable OC businesspeople who’ve joined the effort aren’t CSUF alumni, Powell said. “… the business community of Orange County has really embraced this group of students.”
For his part, Boerner declined to say how much he donates each year, instead focusing on the students’ achievements. “I believe in the program, I believe in the kids.”
More Than Money
Guardian Scholars extends far beyond college financial assistance, exposing participants to financial literacy and personal budgeting. The students learn about paying rent, shopping for groceries, and budgeting for fun money, as well as saving for graduate school.
“Guardian Scholars really is a wrap-around program,” Merino-Contino said. “From the time that they apply to the university until the time they graduate, we provide full support and services for everything from orientation to academic advisement to help securing housing to simply being a listening ear.”
Donors reach beyond donations. One buys laptops for all the incoming scholars. Another gave a $500 meal card to each. Since 2000, Boerner has hosted an annual holiday party at his home for the scholars, supporters and donors to get acquainted and celebrate the season of giving. He also arranges a Newport Harbor cruise for students and donors, and he and business associates frequently have one-on-one lunches with scholars and help mentor them.
Internships, entry-level jobs and career advice are doled out to students who otherwise might have limited access to the business world.
Program participants’ graduation rate hovers around 88%, and last year 80% of graduates enrolled in graduate schools, claiming spots at top colleges and universities, including the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, the University of California-Los Angeles and California Baptist University.
Giving Roots
The program resonates with Boerner, perhaps because of the example his father set for him when he was growing up in a working class area of Chicago. His mother worked in an ice cream shop a few blocks from their home where Boerner and his father walked for visits and ice cream in the summer.
“There were these three kids we passed all the time,” Boerner recalls. “They had holes in their shirts. They had holes in their shoes. Every time we saw them, my dad would always stop and give them 10 cents and tell them, ‘Go buy yourself an ice cream cone.’”
Looking back, Boerner says, watching his father give so freely and so frequently, though their family had little, deeply influenced him. “I just never forgot that.”
North Star
Guardian Scholars has transformed hundreds of lives—not just the students’ lives but also those of donors. And the connections the two groups form don’t end when they graduate.
Boerner said he still keeps in touch with many former scholars. In fact, he hosted one’s wedding at his house a few years ago. “Actually,” he corrects himself, “We’ve hosted two!”
Over the years, the program has undergone transition, with various people leading it. Boerner, Merino-Contino said, has long been its guiding force.
“He has always been there for the students and really makes sure they have a quality experience. Allen really has been our North Star.”
